PhotoBlog : A Morning in the Museum

We went in search of buried treasure. My daughter asked last night if you still got buried treasure. She looked a little surprised when I said I would take her to see some the next day. The Iron Age gold that was recently discovered is on display at the National Museum of Scotland for 3 weeks. So we had a very pleasant hour of a Sunday morning around the much reduced museum. Looking forward to its full return in 2011.

On a photographic note, if you have a Canon DSLR and you don’t have the Canon EOS 50mm/F1.8 Ef lens then get that on your Amazon wish light right away. For a prime lens it is incredibly cheap and is pin sharp in good light. In the low-light, glass covered world of a museum it at least gives you a chance, albeit on very high ISO (if you can avoid the people who insist on taking reflections of their flash in the glass). All of the images below were shot with it.

Treasure ahoy! One of the torcs we went to see. I call this one ‘Peter’.

I love these, very famous, chess men. Despite their age, you can see a definite ‘peace out’ message going on here. There is nothing new in the world.

Much to my daughter’s disappointment I was unable to confirm her assertions that these were pirate cannons.

It seems a particular quirk of history or historians that most female royalty are always allowed the suggestion (Anne of Cleeves aside) that they were beauties. If this image of Mary Queen of Scots (on her sarcophagus) is anything to get by then, well, decide for yourself.

This eagle head is part of a grand golden lecturn from a church. I picked out this detail as I thought it looked entirely gormless.

Museums are at their best, especially for kids, when they are interactive. This morse generator is good fun. As is required, everything should start with “hello world”.

…and then you can go on to explain how you send that message with one of these.